The One that Got Away
by PD31
Summary: The day Carly dreaded has finally arrived; she looks back on the choices she made that have led her to this point.


The One That Got Away

By PD31

Rating: K+

Pairing: Teddie (Tori/Freddie), one-sided Creddie (Carly/Freddie)

Summary: The day Carly dreaded has finally arrived; she looks back on how she reached this point.

**AN: This was written in response to a request by Sportsfan64, so my thanks for providing the inspiration. It is a STAND-ALONE one-shot story and does not (necessarily) take place in the universe of any of my other stories.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly, Victorious, any of the episodes or any of the characters. Nor do I own Katy Perry's song, The One That Got Away.**

* * *

_Apartment 8-C, Bushwell Plaza_

_Seattle, WA_

_Sunday, 14__th__ February 2016_.

"_Mr David and Mrs Holly Vega do have the delight of inviting you to the wedding of their daughter,_

_**Victoria Dawn**_

_To_

_**Fredward Karl Benson**_

_Sunday, the fourteenth of February_

_Two Thousand and Sixteen_

_At Two O'clock in the afternoon at_

_Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church,_

_4954 Santa Monica Boulevard,_

_Los Angeles, CA_"

Carly Shay clutched the tear-stained invitation to her chest; the brunette knew it was self-torture to read it again, or even to look at it, but she did so anyway. She rolled over in bed and stared at the ceiling of her room, eyes falling on the gummy bear chandelier; she smiled as she thought back on the events of her birthday that led to the refit of her room. As painful as it had been at the time, it was a happier memory now for her. From the corner of her eye she spied her wardrobe and the smile left her face in an instant as it brought Freddie – and _everything_ that he had touched and done in her life – back into sharp focus. Desperate to forget, she switched on her bedside radio; unfortunately the song they were playing didn't help her. She groaned again at the lyrics.

_In another life I would be your girl_.

The defining moment of her life so far came crashing back to her; the day that she left for Italy with her dad, right as High School was finishing. It had started as an idea for a summer away, a chance to spend a little time with her father. Minutes before leaving, she and Freddie had kissed; she'd gone before they'd discussed what it meant – heck, _she_ didn't know what it meant so there was no point in trying to talk about it but Freddie, faithful Freddie, madly-in-love-with-her Freddie, when they _did_ finally talk a week or so later once she had settled into her new home, he had thought it meant they were a couple. She still wasn't sure of exactly what it meant, and wasn't in the mood for a long-distance relationship (and Freddie would _always_ be there, wouldn't he?), and today, as she thought back on their talk, the brunette vividly recalled how eagerness and happiness transformed into a crushed look on his face when she told him, over a video chat, that it just hadn't meant the same to her, that she was just saying goodbye. Her heart ached with the recollection of his next words, and the tears that leaked as he delivered them,

"Then it _really_ is goodbye Carls."

The finality of his tone had rocked her; they hadn't spoken again for weeks, though she would later learn from Sam that he had, coincidentally, moved to Los Angeles, just like the blonde had. That her two best friends had both left Seattle gave Carly the idea that there was nothing left in Seattle for her to return to (to her amazement, Spencer had found a girlfriend – another artist who was encouraging him and helping his own career to finally take off) so she decided to stay in Italy for college at one of the international faculties available to servicemen and their families.

She remembered wondering what it would mean, that Sam and Freddie were still in the same city, albeit a different one to the one they had grown up in, though if the blonde had hoped that they would one day get back together then she never mentioned it. The more Carly dwelt on that prospect, the less and less appealing it became to her. She kept thinking back to his expression when she had rejected him for the last time, then back to how he put their relationship on hold after saving her life (only for her to end _that_ too, once the 'hero-worship' was over) and one day, she wasn't quite sure when, she woke up with an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach; the feeling that she had made a _huge_ mistake. She resolved to wait for the next time he flirted with her or hinted at something between them and then make her move; little did she know it was already too late.

As it turned out even if Sam _did_ want Freddie back, she would have been disappointed anyway as, around Christmas time, they discovered that he was dating Tori Vega, having reconnected with her and the group after starting college. Carly was surprised, and hurt, that she found this out from Sam, even though she and Freddie had been talking again… a little – in the weeks beforehand. His lack of a flirtatious manner, even in jest, had been surprising to her; suddenly it made a lot more sense.

_In another life I would make you stay,_

_So I don't have to say you were the one that got away_.

The news that Tori and Freddie were dating, and had been for well over a month (longer than his relationships with either her or Sam) had felt like a slap in the face being delivered to the brunette. Cat, Sam's unlikely and unusual roommate, couldn't control her giggles when she talked about the couple, about how cute they were together, how _perfect_ and how _adorable_ they were together. Sam's face had been an impassive mask during the redhead's swooning and she always brushed off any questions Carly had about her feelings towards the boy. Nobody, however, ever asked the brown-haired girl how _she_ felt about it; nobody ever knew that, after learning the news, she had cried herself to sleep that night, and every night after for over a week.

_Sometimes when I miss you I put those records on_.

Carly had suddenly realised how lonely she really was around the start of her sophomore year; her dad had been deployed leaving her alone again for weeks at a time, only this time it was in a foreign country with very few friends. The homesick girl had tried clicking on _iCarly dot com_ to look over some old videos, memories of happier times, mostly clips that involved Freddie in front of a camera, just so she could see his smile and the look in his eyes as he gazed at her, but that, too, disappeared soon after as the site's hosting expired (Spencer either forgot to renew it or simply let it lapse given that there was no prospect of the trio reuniting). She had nothing left for her in Italy, she realised, and had transferred back to UW, the only American college she had applied to (naively assuming that the three of them would all be going there) for the second semester of the year.

Back home, she found things little better, though Spencer, and his girlfriend who had become a permanent fixture in their home, were there for her, a few of the Ridgeway kids were around UW and she made some new friends. To her surprise, though, neither Sam nor Freddie ever came to visit. Her best friend seemed to have carved out a whole new life and the brunette hadn't _really_ expected her to come and visit her mother while Freddie… she thought he'd at least have come to see _his_ mother – and, if she was honest with herself, _her_ once he knew she was back, but he never did; he'd been with Tori for over a year as well now and, her sources in LA told her, things were _definitely_ serious between them.

The thought that Freddie had been in a relationship for that long really shouldn't have been a surprise, she reflected. The boy was nothing if not loyal to those that he cared about; it hit her like another punch in the gut how _loyal_ he had always been to _her_, reminding herself forcibly of how loyal he _could_ have been to her going forwards. She had seen pictures of the couple together and how happy they looked; when she had first seen the pictures they had made her realise what she truly wanted, what she'd been searching for all along and what she had and let go of, not once but twice now.

_All this money can't buy me a time machine,_

_Can't replace you with a million rings._

_I should have told you what you meant to me, ' cause now I pay the price_.

She read through the invitation one more time, casting her mind back to the excited, elated chat they had shared when he had informed her that Tori had said yes. She had managed to force a smile and congratulate him, only to cry herself to sleep again after they had said their goodbyes. Carly felt her vision start to blur again and the old, familiar pain creep up through her chest; she clenched the invitation, creasing it before throwing it onto the floor, rolling over and letting the relieving tears fall again.

"_Make him happy Tori,_" she managed to choke out as her mind's eye clearly saw, once again, the boy she had finally fallen in love with far too late; the one that got away.

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading. As I say it was a request/inspiration piece and I hope you enjoyed it. PD.**


End file.
